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BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.11
Publication date： 2009-06
Special Article Qilun (Material Force Theories) and Modern Transform of Confucianism -A Comparative Research on Pre-modern Sino-Japanese Thoughts
Song-Ming Lixue (a Confucian School of the Song and Ming Dynasties, also known as Neo-Confucianism) was the official ideology of in both China and Japan during the Seventeenth Century. However why was there such a great difference between Chinese and Japanese political thoughts during the modern transform? This essay compares the different ways of transconstruction of Neo-Confucianism in both countries, aiming to show that before the Western cultural influence, they had developed different political cultures and it is the main reason that the acceptances and reconstructions of modern western political thoughts landed in totally different tracks. To replace the Li-Qi-dualism (Principle-Material Force Dualism) of Neo-Confucianism with Qi-monism (Material Force-monism), one of the unavoidable consequences was the idea world, which decided by the rank-ordered morality, would become a realist world. There was not an intergrated system, which the private and public spheres were involved in Japan, neither existed the culture of “realist world constructs the idea world as China had. In Japan, Qilun’s impact towards Neo-Confucianism caused the spilt of politics and morality, making the Confucian ethics fall into the private sphere and the emperor became the symbol of the nation, which had nothing to do with instrumentalism. Thus the Meiji Restoration Era placed a good ground for Japanese to develop its odernity in full speed. In China, bounded by her deep-rooted cultural structure, Qilun’s impact reconstructed the political ideology. This essay analyzed the four typical Qilun attacks and how Confucianism dealt with each of them. The four Qilun were raised by Huang Zongxi, Wang Chuanshan, Dai Zhen and Liu Zongzhou. This essay also proved that these four Qilun served as the base for accepting foreign concepts to develop modern political thoughts. For examples, Huang’s Qilun as the fol esources of constitutional monarchy; Wang’s Qilun was similar to the dialectical materialism which was popular after the May Fourth Movement; Dai’s Qilan was the start of individualism and later developed to the Chinese version of liberalism; Liu’s self-restrain had the same structure as Mao Zedong’s “criticizing the capitalists” self-restrain movement. The most important thing is after Mao’s ideas were overthrown, Qilun still laid on Chinese’s sub-consciousness and it serves as the cultural base of the Qigong-mania nowadays. This essay aims to prove that even modernity is a concept from the west, which is supposed to be global and universal, but different cultures process rationalism and ultimate concern in their own ways and therefore multiplemodernity exists and Qilun is the source of Confucian civilized modernity in East-Asia.
After Su Shi’s first time taking office in Hangzhou, he began to write Ci.Within this period, a group of literators which centers on Su Shi and Zhang Xian formed. The thesis firstly studies the social intercourse between Su Shi and these literators, then dissertates the ways of their narrations.Zhang Xian and Su Shi used a lot of works of Ci in social intercourse and they also used a lot of themes and forewords in their writing of Ci, so it is a pioneer significance for the history of Ci. In the representation of Ci, they mostly chose short-length, but at the same time, they also began to try feature-length. Zhang Xian had many influences on Su Shi, Ouyang Xiu also had an inflence on him when Su Shi began to write Ci.Su Shi formed diverse styles very soon, especially the unconstrained style. This period, the narrations of Xihu literators include the stories of women singers, the stories of sightseeing, the stories of seeing off friends and the stories of travels and the major contents of their sympathy are those concerning the office, relationship, friendship, and so on.
Theme Thesis On the distinguishing between Southern and Northern Song Dynasty of ChangZhou Ci School
The disputes about Southern and Northern Song Dynasty was throughout Ci poetry criticism in Qing Dynasty. YunJian Ci School advocated Southern Tang Dynasty and Northern Song Dynasty, they rejected Southern Song; ZheXi Ci School had the opposite attitude, they respected the Southern Song, and set the Jiang Kui and ZhangYan as an symbol. After ChangZhou Ci School rose, they discussed the features about Ci in Southern and Northern Song Dynasty deeply, and rethought the gains and loses about the dispute comprehensively. Zhang Huiyan didn’t set a boundary line between Southern and Northern Song Dynasty when he commented the poets in The Preface of CiXuan. he discarded the school’s personal feeling from the beginning of the the Qing Dynasty that advocated Southern or Northern Song. Zhou Ji and Chen Ting-zhuo analysed the different styles, advantages and disadvantages of the Ci in Southern and Northern Song, and pointed out the respective value of them. ChangZhou Ci School’s analysis showed the characteristics and significances as follows: from disputing to distinguishing; deeper recognition of respective features and the comparison of Ci in Southern and Northern Song; the direct influence on people’s perspective today. After ChangZhou Ci School, traditional ci-poetry criticism which represented by the Four masters of the late Qing dynasty, and the new ci-poetry criticism which represented by Wang Guo-wei, started a new dispute on Southern and Northern Song again.
The paper aimed at explaining the opinion of Ching tzu schools research by myself, and proof way based as above, in order to discuss effectively with science group and acquire reasonable judgement.The basic opinion of the methodology defined “Tzu school” as “social group” again, comprehended and interpreted the significance of “ Tzu school” in view of sociology with taking a main example by “changzhou （常州） tzu school”. The approach completed the tzu schools research based in view of literature that gave less attention to social opinion.
Since the promotion of new knowledge and the abolishment of the eight-legged essay exam in Late Qing dynasty, the eight-legged essay was viewd as the chief culprit of the ignorant intellectuals and the weak country, therefore, a person with breadth of vision abandoned the type of writing without a second thought. Nowadays, people inherited of the negative commentaries on eight-legged essay, have little understanding but think it as vacuous and shallow. However, we can’t turn a blind eye to this kind of writing form, which has the strong connection to the society and the culture during the 500-year period, when studying Ming-Qing literature. This thesis initiates the form arrangement in the purpose of reducing the reading difficulties in present days. On contrast with emphasizing on the “literary form” of eight-legged essay, the form arrangement aims to highlight the concrete structure and to show forth its essence of an examination paper. By nestling up to the essence and broading the distance with the literature, we can avoid criticizing it in a light of literature but face it anew and excavate its distinguishing features. The insperation was sparked out when the author was studying the Four Books essays of Gui You-guang, for this reason, these essays in the thesis all belong to Gui You-guang. This paper is diveded into six parts: (1) The origin (2) The involvement of critical classics- an inevitatable part (3) Opening, Amplification and Preliminary exposition are one section separately (4) The one of the four argument sections (5) The conclusion section (6) Conclusion.
Landscape is often taken as a signifying system that conveys symbolic cultural implications which would transform with different generations and various interpretations made by authors/subjects. Huqiu (虎丘), as a prominent public garden and entertaining space for literati in middle Ming dynasty, had been continuously rewritten. The landscape of Huqiu was a significant symbolic figure for the literati community of Wu province, indicating a unique sensitivity of being, emotional patterns of daily life, socio-cultural constructions, and traces of transition throughout history. Considering aspects as landscape writing and humanistic construction, multiple mediation and carnivalesque entertainment, and literati community and landscape re-creation, this paper analyses how the middle Ming literati community, with discursive practices such as literature and painting, provided the suburban public garden Huqiu a new aesthetic form, social connotation, and cultural function. Along with motion and performance of body, evocation and dialogism of memory, projection and recognition of emotion, transformation and renovation of fashion, how did the literati community shape the space of Huqiu, a suburban public garden, as an important cultural landscape, and bestow new cultural interpretation and humanistic construction on it? How did cultural landscape and movement of body space define each other and correlate? How did the cultural landscape and the public garden outlook of Huqiu being verified and rewritten with assembly of different communities, drive of consumer culture, and assist of material condition?In general, this paper argues how the cultural writing of Huqiu landscape and humanistic construction of public garden by the middle Ming literati were performed as a thinking pattern and conceptual value held by authors / subjects, how they represented constructive qualities of society and identity of community, and how they presented vivid local characteristics and particular life styles.
Landscape is often taken as a signifying system that conveys symbolic cultural implications which would transform with different generations and various interpretations made by authors/subjects. Huqiu (虎丘), as a prominent public garden and entertaining space for literati in middle Ming dynasty, had been continuously rewritten. The landscape of Huqiu was a significant symbolic figure for the literati community of Wu province, indicating a unique sensitivity of being, emotional patterns of daily life, socio-cultural constructions, and traces of transition throughout history. Considering aspects as landscape writing and humanistic construction, multiple mediation and carnivalesque entertainment, and literati community and landscape re-creation, this paper analyses how the middle Ming literati community, with discursive practices such as literature and painting, provided the suburban public garden Huqiu a new aesthetic form, social connotation, and cultural function. Along with motion and performance of body, evocation and dialogism of memory, projection and recognition of emotion, transformation and renovation of fashion, how did the literati community shape the space of Huqiu, a suburban public garden, as an important cultural landscape, and bestow new cultural interpretation and humanistic construction on it? How did cultural landscape and movement of body space define each other and correlate? How did the cultural landscape and the public garden outlook of Huqiu being verified and rewritten with assembly of different communities, drive of consumer culture, and assist of material condition?In general, this paper argues how the cultural writing of Huqiu landscape and humanistic construction of public garden by the middle Ming literati were performed as a thinking pattern and conceptual value held by authors / subjects, how they represented constructive qualities of society and identity of community, and how they presented vivid local characteristics and particular life styles.
This article is based on a relatively rich literature, re-explore Ji Xian’s behavior and writing during Japanese Occupation. On the one hand, I attempts to confirm whether the accuse of so-called cultural-hanjian can be established, and discusses what connection there is between the accuse and poetic creation. On the other hand, I also want to observe reversely how the related accuse to be operated, thus I reconsider the meaning of hanjian-discourse in depth. In an elaboration, I try to rectify some unaccurate points in the existing accuse, and add to some information. In addition, I inspect separately Ji Xian’s poetic text in prewar, wartime, and postwar, to find some messages inside his mind. Finally, I propose we break away from the entanglement of hanjian-discourse, then just pay attention to whether one do prudential calculation on community benefit, and profound introspection on individual life, and I think, Ji Xian was not prudential or profound.
Sharon Zhong Xiao Yang, Eileen Chang’s successor in Hong Kong, has inherited the sentimental tradition of love stories with slight local character. The notion of time and space in Zhong’s novels seemed so hazy too. Yet, Zhong grew up in Hong Kong, is it possible for “Hong Kong” completely stay out of Zhong’s world of fiction? This paper will focus on a short story by Sharon Zhong, “A Night for Romance” ( 〈良宵〉), to illustrate how intertexuality serves as the mediator in generating different meanings. A Night for Romance incorporating the Chinese opera Princess Changping (《帝女 花》)as an intertext, thus forming a textual network with multiple meanings, such acts as a political allegory and historical metaphor of Hong Kong. The story also recalls the cultural memories and the feeling of Hongkongers during the transitional period before the handover of the city’s sovereignty. This paper aims at pointing out the various possibilities for writing and reading Hong Kong from the perspective of intertextuality. In the domain of literature, “writing about Hong Kong” may take Zhong’s style specifically in her writing of The Legend of Regret (《遺恨傳奇》) in which family sagas symbolize major historical events to echo the 1997 narrative style, then the writing intention of the author becomes the curial authority in interpretation. On the other hand, one can “writing about Hong Kong” by adopting Zhong’s approach just like the writing of “A Night for Romance”. “A Night for Romance” gives a room to readers read in the details of the text so as to reconstruct the cultural memories of Hong Kong. In a word, it is evident that Zhong’s seemingly “Non-Hong Kong” novels, through reader’s creation reading, it is probable to impel the characteristic of “Hongkongness” in Zhong’s love stories.
